Kocharyan's defence denied judge challenge

The advocates of Robert Kocharyan, the second president of Armenia, failed to achieve disqualification of Judge Armen Danielyan. In their opinion, the judge's decision to return Kocharyan to SIZO (pre-trial prison) proves the judge's impartiality.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on December 20, 2019, the court refused to satisfy the motion of Kocharyan's defence demanding to release him on bail.

The Prosecutor's Office (PO) filed an appeal complaint protesting against the court's decision to acquaint the Kocharyan's defence with the case files. The decision contradicts the confidentiality of the inquiry, since the "March 1" case is at the preliminary stage thereof, the PO claims.

The consideration of the complaint began on January 31; on that day, Kocharyan's advocates filed a motion demanding a challenge of Judge Armen Danielyan, who in June 2019 overturned the decision to release Robert Kocharyan on bail and personal guarantees. In particular, they have emphasized that at court sessions in 2019, Danielyan did not allow them to speak out.

"The judge has shown his inability to be impartial at considering the complaint," Ovannes Khudoyan, one of the advocates, has stated at the session.

Prosecutor Petros Petrosyan objected to the defence's motion. The judges retired to the deliberation room, and today at a sitting of the Court of Appeal they announced their rejection of the motion.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on February 3, 2020 at 06:04 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.